Sonja Biserko, Chairwoman of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, stated that she has conveyed to the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, her concerns about reports from Serbia indicating that houses and apartments are being built in the Sanjak region for Serbs from Kosovo, particularly those from the north. However, she emphasized that such information needs to be verified.
The day before, the Kosovo Government announced that Kurti had met with Biserko, along with Nenad Čanak, former leader of the left-center party, the Social Democratic Party of Vojvodina, and Mark Baskin, a senior advisor at the Humanitarian Dialogue Center. The press release stated that the guests informed Kurti about the discussions in Serbia regarding this potential development.
“As someone who has been dealing with refugee issues since the 1990s, I remind you that there have always been rumors that later resulted in exodus or displacement of populations,” Biserko said in a statement to Radio Free Europe.
“We have told the Kosovo Government to pay attention to this information and to do everything possible to ensure that the Serbian population remains in the north of Kosovo,” Biserko added.
According to her, it is up to society and the Kosovo Government, as well as civil and international organizations, to verify the accuracy of these reports.
Radio Free Europe asked the Kosovo Government spokesperson, Përparim Kryeziu, how the institution plans to handle this information but did not receive a response.
Serbian institutions did not react following the publication of information about Kurti’s meeting with Biserko, Čanak, and Baskin.
RFE contacted the Serbian President’s Office, the Serbian Government, and the Office for Kosovo in Belgrade, but no response was received from any of these institutions.
In Kosovo, there are ten municipalities with a Serbian majority, located in the north and south of the Ibar River.
The exact number of the population is unknown, as Serbs in the four northern municipalities—North Mitrovica, Zvečan, Zubin Potok, and Leposavić—largely boycotted the population census conducted in the spring of this year.
According to preliminary data from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, published on July 12, only around 6,500 people in this area responded to the census, while it is believed that tens of thousands live there.
This area, controlled by Serbia and its parallel structures, has not easily adhered to decisions made by the Kosovo Government since the post-war period of 1999.
As a result, it has often been a focal point for protests and tensions. /RFE/
